I've just started using Lightroom and have done some research on this question. In my catalog are a number of scans I've done where each scanned .jpg files contains one picture. I'll use Lightroom to crop them but of course want to split them into their own file. How can I save a duplicate or copy the existing file before cropping?

Thank you both. While the whole idea of non-destructive is great, in this case I absolutely want it to be destructive. Basically I have a file that is two pictures. I want to crop it and save each individually, never caring again about the original scan. So basically I'll have two choices from a workflow perspective. Scan each individually or Scan the two pictures together say to my desktop, outside my catalog, use PSE to crop into two files then import into Lightroom. I have hundreds to scan so probably will do the later. No need to clog up my catalog with edit information I don't care about. My catalog is big enough already, 400MB.

Thank you both. While the whole idea of non-destructive is great, in this case I absolutely want it to be destructive. Basically I have a file that is two pictures. I want to crop it and save each individually, never caring again about the original scan. So basically I'll have two choices from a workflow perspective. Scan each individually or Scan the two pictures together say to my desktop, outside my catalog, use PSE to crop into two files then import into Lightroom. I have hundreds to scan so probably will do the later. No need to clog up my catalog with edit information I don't care about. My catalog is big enough already, 400MB.

Sounds like a lot of extra work to use PSE and Lightroom, when Lightroom can do it in a very simple and straightforward fashion.

Now that you're telling us it's two - if it were me, I'd scan each one individually. It will be an easier workflow, and more importantly, you can apply individual settings to each scan, if you do two together, you could be in for some impossible compromises.

And I would strongly recommend that you do any retouching/spotting in Elements before importing to Lightroom. LR isn't designed for that kind of work, and will slow down or even stop completely if you use the spot removal tool on a lot of dust spots.

I want to crop it and save each individually, never caring again about the original scan... I have hundreds to scan so probably will do the later. No need to clog up my catalog with edit information I don't care about. My catalog is big enough already, 400MB.

It doesn't have to be an either/or thing. Cropping and basic corrections are very fast in Lightroom, and if you are working in bulk on a large number of scans it's very likely that bulk cropping will go much faster in Lightroom.

What I do is scan a large number of images into a folder that is set up in Lightroom as a Watched Folder for Auto-Import. That means I don't have to manually import those scans; they just show up in Lightroom and I work on them as they appear. If an entire film roll of scans needs similar cropping or other tone/color/noise adjustments, it's much faster to copy settings across those 24 or 36 images in Lightroom in one step than to do them one by one in Photoshop.

When I'm done in Lightroom, if I don't want to keep the uncorrected scans I simply select all the images and export them as TIFF to another folder that I will keep (another one-step bulk process that's efficient in Lightroom), and I throw out the previous folder. Now I'll do the spotting and other corrections that are better done in Photoshop.

As for the "large" 400MB catalog...that isn't large. Many professional Lightroom users measure their catalogs in gigabytes or in tens of thousands of images or more. (A large catalog does not slow down Lightroom.) It's a matter of perspective: While a 1GB catalog for hundreds of images might seem large, chances are if you didn't have Lightroom and instead saved all those images as layered Photoshop files with the same corrections, the total storage space used up by those images might be more than the original non-layered images plus a Lightroom catalog for them.

Thanks for this reply. I do have Photoshop. Basically I am scanning in a box of historical family photos. Scanning one at a time is time consuming given my scanner and the scan resolution I am using. In some cases I am scanning slides too which take a long time to scan. Multiple at a time works but the photos scanned together may not be related. Researching virtual copies and how they are stacked may not work since the end result is the final cropped photos will be moved to an appropriate folder based on the year of the photo. So I think your photoshop suggestion is my best bet. I may never have used PSE properly but I tried the File>Automate>Crop and Straighten in Photoshop and that alone was a huge time saver.

As I am learning, determining your workflow is so critical. A lot to learn. I appreciate your advice.